Father's Day Extravaganza

As most of you know, Father's Day is coming up here in a few weeks (June 17th if you forgot). Here are a few awesome gift idea's, plus recipes that you can use with these gifts. I recently just got two demo products from the kind people over at Molecule-R and SousVide Supreme that would be perfect for the Father who loves to cook. 

Molecule-R is a Canadian based company with the purpose of bringing the molecular gastronomy world into the home kitchen. In recent years, molecular gastronomy has revolutionized the world of haute cuisine by pushing back the boundaries of creativity. Up to now, creating avant-garde dishes was reserved for a small culinary elite as amateur cooks simply did not have access to these types of  products. Be sure to check out their website for great gift kits!

SousVide Supreme has quickly evolved into a leading culinary brand for sous vide cooking, for both home cooks and culinary professionals, offering a full range of affordable water ovens, vacuum sealers, sous vide accessories and cookbooks. The products have received rave reviews from users around the world; the SousVide Supreme water oven itself was awarded "Best in Category for Cooking Electrics" at the 2011 Housewares Design Awards and was named a 2010 Best of What's New product by Popular Science Magazine. Be sure to check out their website for great gift ideas! 

Molecular Burger

Sous-Vide Burger Ingredients 

•  24 ounces freshly ground beef
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves thinly sliced garlic
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 slices cheese
• 4 hamburger buns
• Ketchup & Mustard Spheres, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat SousVide Supreme to desired final temperature (120 degrees for rare, 130 degrees for medium rare, or 140 degrees for medium). 

Divide meat into four equal 6-ounce portions and gently shape each into a patty. Season generously with salt, pepper, and lay slices of garlic on top of each patty. Place patties in individual sandwich-sized zip-lock bags. Seal bags, leaving one-inch open at top corner. Slowly lower bags one at a time into pot of water by holding onto the open corner. Press air out of bag as it is submerged. Seal bag just before last corner is submerged. This is also known as water displacement method. You don't want to vacuum seal the patties because it will compress the meat to much. Add the burgers to the SousVide Supreme and cook for at least 30 minutes and up to 12 hours (do not cook burgers longer than 4 hours if your temperature is below 130 degrees).

Remove burgers from bags and carefully dry on paper towels. Season again with salt and pepper. Heat 12-inch cast iron skillet over high heat with vegetable oil until oil begins to smoke. Add patties and cook until well browned on first side, about 45 seconds. Flip patties (add cheese as desired) and cook until second side is well browned, about 45 seconds longer. Place patties on buns, top with condiments as desired and serve. 

Ketchup & Mustard Spheres Ingredients

• 2/3 cup ketchup 
• 2/3 cup mustard
• 1/2 cup water, divided 
• 2 sachets of Agar Agar, from Molcule-R Culinary Revolution Kit
• 3 cups of vegetable oil, divided 

Directions

Divide vegetable oil (1.5 cups each) into separate containers, I used drinking cups. Place in freezer for 30 min.
 

You will need two small sauce pans, one for the mustard and one for the ketchup. In the first sauce pan place the Ketchup, 1/4 cup of water and 1 sachet of Agar Agar, whisk and bring to a boil. Repeat process for mustard. Make sure you whisk them to remove any clumps of Agar Agar. Once boiling, remove from heat. 

Remove vegetable oil from freezer. Using the pipette provided by the Molecule-R Culinary Kit, pipe up some of the ketchup mustard and add drops of the ketchup to the cold vegetable oil. The droplets will slowly sink through the oil and encapsulate. Using the provided slotted spoon, gently remove the ketchup spheres from the oil and put into a water bath to rinse. Repeat steps with remained Ketchup and Mustard. When dropping the mixtures into the oil, drop them from from a distance. This will help the spheres break the surface tension and drop to the bottom. Depending on how many sphere's you make, you might have to change the water bath. I found that residual oil gathered on the water surface make the spheres clump together when removing. Remove from water bath, drain as much water off as you can with the slotted spoon and use as needed.

Molecular "Egg Sandwich"

If your Father and/or Husband is a Nerd and loves to cook, he's going to love this and the Molecule-R Kits

Ingredients

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 slices thick cut bacon
• 2 cups of water
• 1 Sodium Alginate sachet
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 Agar Agar sachet
• 2/3 cup vanilla yogurt
• 1 1/4 cup Mango, diced
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp calcium lactate
• 4 slices marble pound cake (I got mine at Starbucks)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Line a broiler pan with aluminium foil, and position broiler rack on top of pan. Lightly coat the rack with the vegetable oil. 

Combine the brown sugar and cayenne in a shallow dish, stirring to incorporate. Press 1 side of each slice of bacon firmly into the spiced sugar to coat well. Arrange the slices of bacon on top of the broiler rack in a single layer, sugar-side up. If there is any sugar remaining in the dish, sprinkle it on top of the bacon slices evenly. Bake until the bacon is crisp and bubbly, 20-30 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain briefly, then to a plate to cool. After bacon has cooled, transfer to a cutting board and large dice the bacon. Set aside, you can make this several hours in advance and serve either warm or at room temperature. 

Using either a blender or hand blender combine the 2 cups of water and sodium alginate sachet and blend. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for 15 min. In a small sauce pan whisk the milk and agar agar together and bring to a boil. Place the yogurt and milk mixture in a liquid measuring cup (with a spout) and mix together to incorporate. On a large, flate plate or baking sheet. Pour a thing layer of the yogurt and milk mixture into the center of a large circular cookie cutter. Repeat this until you have 4 even circles. You may need to pick up the plate and tip it to make an even layer for the "egg white." Refrigerate for 2-3 minutes until set. Remove from fridge and add a second smaller circle in the middle of the larger, you're trying to get that egg white look with the raised center. Refrigerate until ready to use. 

Place the mango, sugar and calcium lactate into a blender and puree until smooth. Remove the sodium alginate bath from the fridge and spoon 1 Tbsp of the mango mixture into the bath. Be gentle and try to make them look like an egg yolk. Repeat this to get 4 mango yolks. Turn the yolks making sure it is coated with the sodium alginate and let in bath for 3 minutes. With a slotted spoon, gently remove the mango yolks from the SA bath and transfer them to a water bath. Swoosh them around to remove the excess sodium alginate.

Take your same large cookie cutter that you used for the yogurt egg whites and cut out the circular pieces of pound cake. Plate the pound cake, using a pastry spatula gently transfer the yogurt egg whites onto the top of the pound cake, then add your mango egg yolk on top and sprinkle with the candied bacon. Serve and impress!

Song of the Recipe

Being a Father's Day themed post, I figured this would be an appropriate song. I love this version with James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti. Two amazing talents, but completely different. 

Lasagna

Did you know that Lasagna may in fact be British and not Italian?? The Forme of Cury is the oldest cookbook written in English. It was compiled about 1390 by the master cooks of King Richard II. Researchers studying it made a surprising announcement in 2003 - the book contains a recipe for lasagna. The dish, called loseyns in Old English (prounounced "Lasan"), consists of noodles rolled as flat and wide "as paper," cooked in broth, layered with cheese, and baked. This recipe predates any Italian reference to the dish, which leads to the surprising conclusion that lasagna may be British. You learn something new everyday! :)

The recipe for Loseyns in The Forme of Cury

Ingredients

• 2 containers (15 oz ea.) ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 4 oz. diced prosciutto
• 2 jars of your favorite sauce or sauce recipe below
• 1 lbs ground beef
• Lasagna noodles, fresh or dry
• 1/2 lbs Mozzarella, shredded

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

In a small saute pan, saute prosciutto until crispy, about 5 min. In a large mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, pepper and prosciutto; set aside. 

In a large saute pan over medium heat, brown ground beef. Add in your jar sauce of choice and let simmer until your ready to assemble lasagna. If you're using the sauce recipe below, disregard that last step and follow the directions there. In a large pot, boil salted water and cook pasta noodles as per box directions. I usually buy store bought fresh lasagna noodles, you can usually find them in the cooler section. Cooking time for fresh is about 4 min, cooking time for dried about 10-12 min. 

In a 13x9 inch baking dish. Spread about 1 cup of the meat and sauce mixture on the bottom. Top with lasagna noodles, then add 1/2 of the ricotta mixture and another cup of sauce; top with 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese; repeat. Top with remaining noodles to cover, add another cup of sauce and top with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. 

Cover with aluminium foil and bake for 1 hour. Remove tin foil and top with remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake an additional 10 minutes or until bubbling. Let stand for 10 min before serving. Garnish with fresh basil. 

Sauce Recipe (optional)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 lbs ground beef
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Directions

In a Dutch oven, cook ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. 

This is a great red sauce in general, you can make a large batch of this and can it or freeze it for quick meals. 

Song of the Recipe

I've been in love with Incubus for awhile now and seeing that this is a Food blog, I figured the title would be appropriate :)

Basic Pizza

So I have a beef...I have a beef with the companies that make and sell pizza stones. They advertise them like the best thing in the world and make it sound like they will make your pizza turn into delicious brick oven pizza. Well people, let me save you from this, they suck...plan and simple. You may love them, but I hate them and I will tell you why. The thing that makes brick oven pizza special is a crap load of heat, a lot more heat then our little home ovens can produce. The problem with these pizza stones is that they are impossible to get hot enough to make a really good pizza. So here is the solution...metal. Metal is way more conductive, it heats faster and it heats more evenly. I've read that some people get sheets of aluminum cut to the dimensions of their oven, then they heat that as hot as their oven can go and then get it even hotter with the broiler. This is the ideal solution and you will be spittin' pizza's out of your oven faster than you can say....I don't know, some big word...But, since I didn't have a big sheet of aluminum laying around, here's the way I did it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups Mozzarella
• 1/2 cup pizza sauce
• Pizza topping(s) of choice

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F

In a small bowl mix the yeast, sugar and warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes until yeast is activated and foaming. In a large bowl, combine the flour, olive oil, salt and yeast mixture. Mix until dough forms. If dough is to sticky, add in 1 Tbsp of flour at a time until elastic, vice versa with 1 Tbsp of water if it is to dry. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm area until double in sized, about 30 min. Once dough has formed, knead on a floured service until smooth and elastic. 

Roll out pizza dough on a metal pizza pan or, in my case, a metal baking sheet. Don't put on any toppings yet, put dough in the oven and bake for 7-10 min until dough is starting to brown. Remove the crust from the baking sheet onto a pizza peel (You don't need a pizza peel, just put the crust on something so you can transfer it back into the oven). Add sauce, cheese and toppings of your choice. Slide the pizza into the oven, directly on the oven rack. Bake for another 7-10 min until cheese is melted, I hit it with the broiler for about 30 second to brown the cheese. 

Song of the Recipe